LADY LOUISE WINDSOR is the eldest child of Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex. This is how the Queen’s granddaughter could lose out on a royal title to her little brother James, Viscount Severn.

Lady Louise Windsor, 16, is said to be one of Queen Elizabeth II’s favourite grandchildren. She is the eldest child of the Queen’s youngest son Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, Countess of Wessex. Edward and Sophie also have a son James, Viscount Severn, 12, who looks likely to inherit one royal title over his big sister.

When Prince Philip, 98, the Duke of Edinburgh dies it is expected that his dukedom will pass to his youngest son Prince Edward, 56.

While dukedoms traditionally go to the eldest son of the titleholder both Prince Charles, Duke of Cornwall and Prince Andrew, Duke of York already have dukedoms so it is expected Edward will be the next Duke of Edinburgh.

This means Edward and Sophie are the future Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh.

The UK currently has a system of male primogeniture which applies to titles, which means only male family members can inherit them.

Lady Louise Windsor BLOW: How Louise could lose THIS title to little brother James (Image: GETTY)

So while Lady Louise is Prince Edward’s oldest child she will lose out on his dukedom which will pass to his son James on his death unless the law is changed.

There seemed to be a glimmer of hope for Lady Louise following a call for a change in the law last year.

The bill, entitled the Hereditary Titles (Female Succession) bill, would make it possible for women to succeed hereditary titles and see that they are not exclusively passed down to men.

While the bill passed its first stage in Parliament in March 2019 it failed to complete its passage through Parliament before the end of the session.

Lady Louise Windsor BLOW: James Viscount Severn will likely be the Duke of Edinburgh after his father (Image: GETTY)

This means the Bill will make no further progress.

While the laws around hereditary titles seem unlikely to change, for now, Princess Charlotte was the first royal to benefit from a significant change to the law of succession.

Ahead of the birth of Kate, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William’s first child Prince George in 2011, the law of succession was altered so that sons and daughters had an equal right to the throne.

This meant that Charlotte has kept her place as fourth in line to the throne after her brother George and was not leapfrogged by Prince Louis, two, when he was born in 2018.

Princess Beatrice is another royal who could miss out due to the UK’s male-focused hereditary laws.

Her father Prince Andrew is the Duke of York but his dukedom can only be inherited by “heirs male of the body.”

As Prince Andrew has two daughters but no son it seems likely that on his death his title will pass to another male royal.

The dukedom could eventually go to Prince William and Kate’s youngest son, Prince Louis.

Lady Louise Windsor BLOW: Royal daughters will continue to miss out on hereditary peerages unless the laws change (Image: GETTY)

One Quora user wrote: “The Dukedom of York will be inherited by the oldest legitimate son of the current duke.

“Of course, the current duke has no sons, so unless that situation changes, the title will go extinct and will be available for the monarch at the time to recreate and confer on whoever they want.

They added: “Of course, the title is usually given to the second son of the monarch, so we would need to know who the monarch will be at the time.

“Given that Prince Andrew is twelve years younger than Prince Charles, it seems likely that when Prince Andrew dies and the dukedom becomes available, Prince Charles will have already died and Prince William will be the king.”